El Cid

Rodrigo Diaz of Vivar (1043-1099), better known as El Cid the Chivalrous, was a Castilian mercenary leader who was best known for his skills in battle, and was respected by Moors and Christians alike, fighting in the service of the Saracens as well as the Spanish kingdoms. He died in 1099 after capturing Valencia from the Aragonese.

Biography
Rodrigo Diaz was born in the town of Vivar in the Kingdom of Castile, and fought in the service of Sancho II of Castile in his early years. He fought in the Battle of Graus, where Sancho and an allied Zaragozan army defeated an Aragonese army, earning fame as a talented swordsman. Following the death of Sancho II, he fell out of favor with Alfonso VI and fought for the Moors, inflicting yet another defeat on the Aragonese at Morella.

El Cid continued to fight for Christians as well as Muslims, and in 1090, he marched on Valencia, and had to defeat Berenguer Ramon II of Barcelona's Catholic army before besieging Valencia itself in 1092 with a mercenary army that pledged allegiance to Alfonso, but was in reality, loyal to him. El Cid fought the Muslims next, and it fell in 1094, with the city becoming his new capital.

Death
In 1099, the Muslims besieged Valencia, and El Cid was hit by an arrow, and he refused to remove it, and died of wounds. His wife Ximena strapped his dead body to a horse and sent it through the Muslim lines, trampling Moorish leader Ibn Yusuf and forcing the Moors to retreat back to Mauritania. His death caused Ximena to burn down the city to prevent it from falling into Saracen hands intact.